Demise of the Living (23 page)

“
The lock is stiff! Don’t
be too gentle with it!” Colin shouted out of the open
door.

“Close the door,” Billy
said.

“What?”

“Stretch over and pull the door
closed.”

When Colin failed to
move, Billy snapped,“Fuckin’ close it! We’ll drive through and
Thomas can close the gate behind us.”

“Uh, sure.” Colin stretched
over and shut the door, then clambered into the front seat.

Thomas rushed up to the sturdy
black gates. It only took a few seconds to find the seating for the
key and throw the gates open wide.

Billy drove through at a
speed Colin found unsettling. There was a buck as the car bumped
over some pulped body part and slip of the rear tyre as it lost
traction on the viscous innards. Colin felt sick rise in his
throat. He was accustomed to entering the car park with students
and other teachers milling around. Billy’s kamikaze speed served to
highlight the difference between those halcyon schooldays and the
end of the world.

“
That it there?” Billy
asked, separating Colin from his thoughts.

“
What? Oh, the mini bus.
Yeah,” Colin said, swallowing down the fresh bile.

Billy brought the car to a
screeching stop in front of the bus.

“
What you waiting for?”
he asked.

“Huh?” Colin grunted.

“
Get out and get her
started,” Billy said.

Colin stepped out of the
car.

“
What’d you do that
for?!” Thomas shouted from down the car park.

“
What?” Colin
asked.

“Fuck off like that?!Could you
not have waited two seconds for me to get back in the car?!”

“
Stop whining,” Billy
said, climbing out of the car. “Besides, the exercise is good for
you.” He turned to Colin. “Now get this thing started and let’s get
the fuck out of here.”

“
Yeah, just a minute…”
Colin hesitated. “That’s Jenny’s car!”

He walked over to the red
car parked up behind the mini bus.

As he walked around the
bus, Colin let his fingers drag across its paintwork. He felt a
thin film of sludge against his fingertips. The bus had only been
sitting out here since last Friday, but already there was a thick
layer of grime on it. Colin didn’t think it had been used. The dirt
was the accumulation of the soot and ash that the last few days of
chaos had swept up into the atmosphere.

He stopped dragging his
fingers over the bus and looked down at the black film that he had
dredged up. At Jenny’s car he went through the same procedure,
ploughing a furrow through to the clean.

“Feels greasy,” Colin said.

Billy walked up behind
Colin and ran his finger along the paintwork. He rubbed his fingers
together and looked out over the playing fields.

“What was that building over
there?” Billy asked, pointing at a burnt-out ruin.

“Old folks’ home, I think.”

“Fat,” Billy said, wiping his
hand on his shirtsleeve.

Colin walked over to the
driver’s side of Jenny’s car and tried the handle. It was locked.
He shaded his eyes and peered inside.. There was an empty fast food
drinks carton and a couple of discarded wrappers, but the interior
was otherwise empty.

“She must have been here a few
days,” Colin announced to Billy and Thomas.

Billy was tugging at a limb
wedged under the wheel arch. It could have been an arm or a leg
from all that Colin could tell. He didn’t want to look too closely
to find out for sure.

“Come on, stop playing
detective and let’s go!” Thomas shouted.

“That’s why they were at the
gate?” Billy asked.

“
Why
what
now? Who cares?
Come on!” Thomas said urgently.

Billy stopped tugging at the
body part and straightened up.

“
There’s someone in
here,” he said.

“
Jenny,” Colin said,
quietly at first. He cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted at
the school, “Jenny!”

“Quiet now,” Billy warned.

Colin felt Billy’s blood-soaked
hand on his wrist, pulling his arm down to his side.

“
Don’t make too much
noise. It attracts them,” Billy said.

Colin looked down. The
blood—or whatever it was—from Billy’s hands had transferred to his
wrist. He could feel the hairs on his arms plastered to his flesh
with the tackiness of the macabre fluid.

Colin tugged the tail of his
t-shirt across the mark and wiped it clear as best he could.

“
This
Jenny
…” Billy said
softly. “She special to you?”

“
No,” Colin blurted
without thinking. “I mean yes. I mean, I’d like her to
be.”

“Okay, let’s get inside and
take a look around,” Billy said.

“What the hell for?” Thomas
asked.

“
Colin here wants to find
his girlfriend,” Billy said, slapping Colin across the
back.

Colin felt the fabric on
his back pull away slightly with Billy’s wet slap. He shuddered,
thinking of the revolting transfer undoubtedly left
behind.

“Fuck her,” Thomas said.

Colin had already begun
walking towards a side door.

“Come on, he’s going to look
for her whether you like it or not,” Billy said. “He has the key
for the bus.”

“
Fuck knows what’s in
there,” Thomas said. “I’m not going in.”

“If you stand out here they’re
going to spot you and make our leaving very unpleasant,” Billy
said. “Besides, there may be stuff in here we can use.”

He turned and followed Colin
into the school building.

***

“Did you hear that?!” Karen
asked.

She had perked up like a gofer
at the sound.

“
A car horn. So what?”
Shan replied.

“I’m going to take a look,”
Karen said excitedly.

“What’s the point?” Shan
asked.

“Other people. It might be a
rescue.”

“
No one’s coming to
rescue us and we don’t want other people,” Shan said sternly.
“They’ll find Miss Alvarez.”

“
What if they
do
find
Miss Alvarez?” Karen said in a sarcastic tone. “She was one
of
them
, after all.”

“You’ll be in as much shit as
me,” Shan countered.

“How do you work that one out?”
Karen asked.

“
Sure, Miss Alvarez was
an accident. People might believe you. But if they find out about
what happened up the Wreks…”

“
That was
you
,”
Karen said.

“And you did nothing,” Shan
replied. “You’re just as responsible as me. You helped every step
of the way.”

“Fuck you!” Karen shouted.

She walked out of the nurse’s
room.

“Where are you going?” Shan
asked.

“Up to the library to get the
best view of what’s happening out there,” Karen said, marching
off.

Reluctantly, Shan followed.

As Karen opened the door to the
library, the smell hit her. It was the smell of books. A week ago
it was one of the most stomach-churning smells imaginable. Now her
imagination was stretched somewhat.

She ran over to the
north-facing long corner window and looked out onto the school’s
concourse. She looked towards the school gates, but there was
nothing there, not even the three creatures at the fence. Walking
over to the other window on the south side, she could no longer see
the gate or the entrance road that led to the car park. Instead she
could see the houses that bordered the school and the fence that
marked the strip of waste ground she and Shan had used to access
the school. A little further round from there, she could see the
main road that led to the school.

The door to the library opened
and Karen gasped in fright.

“Jumpy,” Shan said as she
entered.

“Shan, look at this.” Karen
waved her friend over to the window.

“Some dick honking his horn?”
Shan asked.

“No,” Karen said, staring out
of the window.

“Oh,” Shan said.

The gate to the school was wide
open.

Shan turned away and started
walking back to the stairs.

Karen followed her.

“Shan, aren’t you worried?”
Karen asked.

“
What’s it matter?” Shan
said. “We’re safe in here.”

A voice rolled up the
stairwell: “Jenny!”

“Shit—someone’s inside,” Karen
said.

“
Quick! Hide!” Shan said,
ducking back into the library.

“Why?”

“
Cause we
killed
Jenny,” Shan said. “Jenny is Miss Alvarez.”

Karen was about to
correct her use of the word ‘we’, but then thought better of
it.

“We tell them we found her that
way or that she was one of those things,” Karen reasoned.

“No!” Shan said harshly. “We
avoid them altogether. You and me—no one else.”

“
But what about
them
?”
Karen asked, pointing out the window at the figures shambling to
the school gates.

***

Colin called out, “Jenny?!”

“In here!” Billy shouted.

Colin went running through the
refectory and in through the open kitchen door.

There were empty packets of
food and dirty utensils and crockery all over the place.

Thomas came up behind Colin and
looked over the scene.

“
Someone’s been cooking
in here,” he said, stating the obvious.

Colin whipped round and ran
from the kitchen.

“
Jenny!” he shouted with
renewed vigour.

“Where are you going?” Billy
asked as Thomas turned.

“I was going to help him look.
Sooner he finds her the quicker we leave,” Thomas said.

Billy shook his head and opened
up a storeroom door.

Even though the only
illumination in the kitchen came from a pair of grubby skylights,
Thomas could see the dry store was full of food: bags of flour,
canned goods, drums of cooking oil, powdered milk and eggs,
dehydrated fruit and vegetables.

“There’s a year’s worth of food
in there, at least,” Thomas said aghast.

“
Maybe not a year, but it
beats the tits off that camping gear,” Billy said. “Right. Sleeves
up. Let’s get this stuff loaded. Grab the keys to the bus off Colin
before he strays too far, will you?”

Thomas nodded and chased after
Colin.

“Hey, Tom!” Billy shouted after
him.

“
It’s
Thomas
!” came the
reply.

Billy ignored the
correction. "Find out where the home economics department is! There
will be food up there, too!”

Chapter
12

“What’s for lunch?” Mo asked as
he entered the canteen.

Immediately he saw Sharon and
John sitting together and at their usual position. The two cleaners
were sitting in front of the TV, smoking.

“Um, we have a couple of those
oat bars left,” John said.

“Shouldn’t you be keeping an
eye out for the guys returning?” Sharon asked.

“
I am,” Mo said in
protest. “I only came in to get a drink and something to
eat.”

Sharon nodded her head, but
didn’t verbally acknowledge him.

“An oat bar is fine,” Mo said
to John.

John stood up and plodded over
to one of the cupboards.

“Anything new on the TV?” Mo
asked.

“
No. Just static and test
cards,” Sharon said.

“Static?”

“Well, blank channels not
broadcasting anything.”

“Why’s the power still on?”

“I asked Thomas to leave it on
just in case we need it, like operating the loading bay
shutters.”

“
Okay,” Mo said. “Only
isn’t that a waste of power?”

“
It is,” Sharon replied
sharply. “But since none of us know how to work the generator, I
felt it was prudent.”

“Okay,” Mo said softly, not
wishing to upset Sharon further.

The door to the canteen opened
and Melissa walked in, the dog trotting along beside her. She held
a games console that had been borrowed from one of the forced-open
drawers. It was an old, chunky thing, but it was the only
entertainment the child had.

“Are there any more batteries
for this?” Melissa asked.

“Yeah, sure, there are some in
the stationery cupboard upstairs,” Sharon said.

John passed the breakfast bar
to Mo and Mo gave a grateful nod.

“Sharon, should we be using the
batteries to power that?” Mo asked.

“What is this, Mo?” Sharon
asked.

“What is what?” Mo asked.

“First the power, now the
batteries? Why are you trying to undermine me?”

Mo looked around at the other
people in the room. John was standing shoulder to shoulder with
Sharon and the two cleaners had picked up on the tension in
Sharon’s voice and were watching the altercation.

“
I didn’t mean anything
by it,” Mo said. “I only mean is it wise to use the batteries on a
games console? Might we need them for the torches?”

“
Why are you picking at
me?!” Sharon barked. “Are you trying to make me look bad in front
of everybody?”

“No, that came out wrong,” Mo
said.

“That’s what it sounds
like.”

Mo shrugged. “No, that’s
not it at all.”